


The Reset Button

by BitterSilence



Series: The Rules of Winning [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Tim Drake the Chessmaster, Tim is kind of an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 14:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/967276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BitterSilence/pseuds/BitterSilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m about to pull one over on the entire community in a very dramatic and flashy manner. Interested?” </p><p>“We talking villains or heroes here?”</p><p>“Both.” </p><p>“Talk manipulative to me, baby."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Reset Button

Jason was precisely five minutes late when he slipped in to the small apartment through the living room window. Tim was in the adjacent kitchen, sitting at the small table, laying the groundwork for his plans through his laptop. It was around noon, so he’d set the table for two. Food had become something of a staple for their meetings.

“Just sandwiches this time?” Jason smirked, dropping into a sprawl across the chair opposite from Tim.

“I was a bit busy,” Tim answered flatly. “I’m terribly sorry to disappoint you.”

Jason snorted and took an impolitely large bit of his sandwich. “So what’s up?” he asked through a mouthful of meat and cheese. Tim hadn’t bothered to put lettuce on it because, well, _Jason._

“I’m going to pull one over on the entire community in a very dramatic and flashy manner. Interested?” Tim said, being purposefully vague. Hook.

“We talking villains or heroes here?”

“Both.” Line.

Jason raised both of his eyebrows and leaned in slightly. “Talk manipulative to me, baby,” he smirked.

Sinker.

* * *

 

When Mikalek quietly took control of what was left of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and began to rebuild the Unternet during the mess with Earth-3 and the Secret Society, Tim knew it was going to be trouble. He was proven right when Mikalek built the leftovers of the Secret Society into a loose but effective alliance after the villains from Earth-3 were dealt with and Luthor abandoned the group.

He also had it out for Red Robin and he found out that the newly ressurrected Talia did too (it was Ra’s al Ghul’s decision to use Tim as an heir instead of Bruce that caused the original split between Talia and her father) which lead to Talia joining the Secret Society and the merging of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and Leviathan under her control.  Two weeks later, Talia sent a team of genetically altered assassins armed with kryptonite after the Titans.

They had almost succeeded in killing Kon. Over half of the team had been severely injured.

Mikalek alone, Tim could have dissuaded or otherwise dealt with. But he knew Talia well enough to see that she wouldn’t give up, not after Tim had taken her place from her and Talia’s recent dip in the Pit.

Which meant Red Robin had to die. Or the large majority the world had to think he did. That was where Jason came in.

It wasn’t hard for Tim to help Jason establish himself as an up-and-coming assassin with a grudge against the Bat and his Robins; he had a vast and varied network of contacts that was almost unrivaled, at least among the vigilante community.  Despite his various manipulations and frequently using organized crime to gather money in the past, Jason was, at his essence, a blunt instrument, so Tim took advantage of it. Jason made quite the impression when he fought his way through Talia’s bodyguards and made a deal: give me three million and a distraction and I’ll kill Red Robin.

Talia agreed. Tim and Jason used the next month to plan and prepare.

The caped community eventually found out that Red Robin went to the outskirts of Bludhaven alone, following a possible lead on N.O.W.H.E.R.E. He was attacked by an unknown assassin wielding two daggers. They eventually entered an empty warehouse situated on a deserted block near the ocean. Five minutes later, the assassin exited the building and was airlifted out by a helicopter. Fifteen minutes after that, a bomb went off with enough force to destroy everything within a forty-meter radius and create a crater where it detonated. The remains of the bones recovered from the scene were so badly charred that even Batman couldn’t get enough undamaged DNA to confirm that they were, in fact, Red Robin’s. But there was no way anybody could have survived that blast. The wreckage of the helicopter was found in the nearby waters, having crashed for an unknown reason, but the bodies were never recovered

The explosives were easy for Jason to get with Talia’s help. Talia originally sent the escape copter and a pilot, but Arsenal, disguised as the Red Hood, knocked out said pilot and flew the copter to Bludhaven instead. The warehouse they chose had an underground tunnel leading to the ocean, recently constructed by drug runners sneaking goods into the city. Conveniently, the passageway was close enough to the surface to be destroyed by the explosion. The bones were simple, though unethical to acquire; Tim retrieved a male body roughly his age with a height and stature similar to his own from the local morgue. He used the tunnel to escape to the bay, where Starfire was waiting, manning a Tamaranian submarine. Jason and Arsenal parachuted out of the helicopter and into the ocean, where Starfire picked them up. The helicopter crashed not long after.

It was very neat and well-done, really; everybody he knew, with the exception of the three people he was with, thought Tim was dead, and he was free to activate a persona he’d created for this eventuality and start building a network of allies to help him take down Leviathan and the Secret Society.

* * *

 

Tim eventually settled in a quiet area of Metropolis’s suburbs. Superman had never met him, and it was highly unlikely that Bruce had asked the Kryptonian to memorize his heartbeat. Kon’s hearing was above average, but not to the level that he’d be able to track Tim. His neighbors thought he worked from home for Lex Corp (he might eventually get a job there, actually). The bungalow he’d chosen had a basement, where Tim constructed one of the most powerful computer systems in the world and an armory, guarded by security measures only a (former) Bat could know. For a base of operations, it wasn’t half-bad, despite lacking the room to store larger toys like his Ducati.

Tim settled into his chair in front of the monitor array and typed in the commands necessary to call the first group meeting. The main screen displayed six separate, blank rectangles, while the four secondary screens – two on each side of the larger one – showed his new icon; the symbol for pi in bright blue against a black background. A number of infinite possibilities for what Tim wanted or needed to be, a mystery with infinite plans.

The first person to respond was, of course, Black Bat, formerly known as Batgirl, now Batman Incorporated’s Hong Kong operative and a long-term ally of Tim’s. She’d protested Tim’s plan in that quiet, furious way of hers, but she agreed to help him. Her Black Bat symbol on the monitor indicated that she’d turned her com unit to their channel, though she gave no verbal queue.

The next box was filled by a red spider, signaling that Lonnie Machin, the former Anarky and internet super hacker known as MoneySpider, was listening in. It was probably a bit pathetic that he’d been Tim’s most reliable ally for almost seven months now.

Then came Jason’s Outlaws, symbolized by a red helmet, a pink, seven-pointed star, and a stylized red A.

Prudence, marked by the silhouette of a gun, was last, which she’d probably planned just to show Tim he didn’t own her. But rebel or not, she was consistent, which made her a relatively safe operative.

“Thank you all for responding,” Tim began.

“So, thought of your alias yet?” Jason asked, half-mocking.

He’d had one planned for a while, actually. “Detective. Just Detective.” It was arrogant enough to keep Bruce from suspecting him from some time, especially since he knew nothing about Ra’s al Ghul’s nickname for Tim. Ra’s, on the other hand, would figure it out very quickly, but if he did say anything, it wouldn’t be to the Secret Society or Talia, as Ra’s was rather invested in keeping him alive, both for the potential of a sperm donation and something that Tim suspected bordered on entertainment value. “I want to make something clear: though I am in some ways the leader, this is not a team. This is an alliance. I will provide information and cases, but you are free to make your own decisions about how to complete them. My only rule is that you don’t kill on a mission I send you on.”

Jason snorted, “Yeah, that’s gonna work real well.”

“I don’t care what you do in your own time. But do not kill while working cases with me.” Tim was short on allies, and he couldn’t afford to care given the sort of people he was going to take on.

Jason was placated, for now. It had to be enough.

“That said, welcome to the Outsiders. It’s time to get down to business.”

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in some hypothetical future post-Forever Evil.
> 
> Jason has his memory back.
> 
> The Justice Leagues are alive.
> 
> Bludhaven was never attacked by Chemo.
> 
> Teen Titans #0 is a lie.


End file.
